A Never Ending Year
by DramaQueen1133
Summary: AU series 3 with Rose. A year is a long time to be held captive. With Martha Jones walking the Earth on a misson, the Doctor, Rose and Jack must try and survive whatever the Master throws at them. This is the year that never was.
1. Captured

**I apologise if this has been done before, but I just found the idea intriguing so I thought...why not? This is an AU where Rose and the Doctor were never seperated during Doomsday, so kept on travelling with him during series 3. Martha still joined them on their travels, so really the addition of Rose is the only mega change you should note. I doubt I'll write 365 chapters for each day of this year, so you may find it jumping a couple of weeks at a time here and there. but I do hope you enjoy! xx**

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_Day 1_

Rose blinked at the sudden harshness of the light streaming through the bars of her cage. As the room bust into light, a flurry of movement occurred about her all at once. The doors opened and _he _came dancing in, spinning and grinning, their lord and master. His wife followed behind him obediently, swaying and singing to the song being played over the intercom. Guards filed into the room behind them, followed by his ring of servants, immediately Rose noted Trish and Martha's mother amongst them.

But the only movement she was concerned about came from the Doctor's tent. After the night fell, the Master had ordered for a tent and a cage to be brought to the control room. The piece of fabric that you could barely excuse as a tent was dirty and torn, and Rose's cage was rusting with years of decay. In a way, she was glad that Martha had escaped this fate. But knowing that she was somewhere roaming the planet with bloodthirsty Toclafane flying about was almost as bad. If not worse. The activity must have come to the Doctor's attention also, as the flap to the tent opened. The way he crawled out of it seemed so weary to her, it hurt to even look at. His face no longer held the youthful exuberance that she was used to. Instead there was only tiredness.

The Doctor's eyes found hers and immediately Rose offered him a smile of what she hoped look like optimism. A shadow of the smile that she had practically memorised crossed his own face, so faint that Rose wasn't even sure it had been there at all. Spending the night so near and yet so far from him hurt. All she had wanted to do was to crawl into the tent beside him and tell him that it would be alright. They would be alright. But she had had to endure the cold metal bars separating them.

"So, day 1 of the Time Lord empire, Doctor. What to do, what to do…" With a flick of his screwdriver the music shut off, leaving only the Master's voice to fill the room. Either he was oblivious to the cold reception and stony faces, or he just didn't care. It was more than likely the latter. He strolled leisurely to the tent where the Doctor now sat outside.

"Don't you love it, Doctor? All of time and space is mine to control. It quite literally is, my playground." Rose frowned at the man with distaste. He was like a kid. A huge kid with too much power.

"The Toclafane…what are they?" The Doctor's voice reached her ears and Rose shuffled forwards, straining to hear what he had to say. He even sounded tired. Wrapping her hands around the rough metal of the bars, she listened to the hushed conversation.

"Wouldn't you like to know." The Master taunted, a grin crossing his face.

"Tell me."

"I don't want to break your hearts now, do I?" The Doctor made no comment, and it seemed as of the Master had gotten bored of him. He made to walk away, only freezing when he heard Tish mutter.

"You're pathetic." The air in the room froze, no one dared move for fear of something that they couldn't quite place. The footsteps of the Master seemed to echo as he turned and crossed the room to reach Tish.

"Say it again?" Her eyes were large with panic, darting around the room looking for anyone to help.

"I'm sorry, I didn't say anything-"

"Oh no, I distinctly heard you mutter something. The acoustics are rather bad in here, so I really do need you to repeat that." He seemed to leer at her, using his height to back her against the wall.

"Please, I'm sorry-"

"Just leave her!" Rose called out before she could stop herself. The Doctor whipped his head around, gazing at her with a mixture of pride and sadness.

"So…the companion speaks at last." The Master clapped his hands with some perverse form of glee, practically skipping to her cage.

"Now. What did _you _say?"

"I said leave her alone." Rose wasn't sure if her hatred for the man gave her the courage to speak to him like that, or whether it was the cage that separated them.

"Oh, feisty one aren't you? I like it. Very much so." He wrapped his own hands around the bars.

"Well, too bad. Cause I'm not keen on you." She said back, feeling the bravery well up inside of her. Glancing over his shoulder, she could see the Doctor give a little shake of his head. The message was clear. Be quiet.

"Do you know why I put you in a cage my dear Rose?" Biting her lip to keep from retorting to the master's use of my, she gave a little shrug.

"Because you're a bad wolf. A very bad wolf. We can have dogs like the Doctor in tents, but not wolves. You can't house train a wolf. They need to be locked up, kept away from everyone else. Don't you think?" Rose said nothing. The Doctor had caught her eye, trying to offer her as much reassurance as he could.

"I think you're mad." She said. The Masters mouth twitched into a half smile as he regarded her. Just when his stare was becoming too uncomfortable to meet, he pushed himself away from the cage to address the room.

"So, I was thinking. How do I break the Doctor? How do I get to him? How do I push all of those little buttons that he has locked away? how do I chip away at those hearts of his? Then I thought, of course! How could I have missed it? To break him, I need to break everything that he loves."

"Stop it." The Doctor warned, eyes following the man. But what surprised Rose was that his eyes held no contempt for the Master. Only pity. There was a story behind them and their relationship, more than the Doctor has originally told her.

"So I made a list!" The Master turned from her, listing things off on his fingers now, speaking so nonchalantly as if they were his friends round for tea.

"He _loves _his ship. So I stole it, stripped it of everything that was his and made her mine. He adores the universe. I kill one tenth of it. Well, one tenth of Earth, but he has this funny little fetish with humans so it's a start. But still, he seems to have this rather annoying fighting spirit left inside of him. So how do I kill that?" Pulling a face of mock thought, he pulled out his laser screwdriver and turned to Rose again.

"It's a quite simple one that really. I kill you."

"Leave her!" The Doctor's voice ripped through the room, making the Master pause.

"Why would I do that?" With a twist of his fingers, the screwdriver began to light up, energy building at it's tip.

"Don't touch her, please. Hurt me if you have to, but leave her alone." Ignoring the ache in his bones, the Doctor stood, gripping onto the railing for support.

"But killing her would be so much fun." Rose backed away against the furthest wall of her cage, waiting with baited breath.

"Please…I…I'm begging you, Master. Don't harm her."

"Oh, when you say it like that, it just makes me want to kill her more." A high pitched whine filled the room as the screwdriver's power came to a head. Without thinking, the Doctor moved as quickly as he could to stand in front of the cage, and the Master watched with a face of unadulterated joy as the green beam of light hit him square in the chest. The Doctor had braced himself, expecting waves of pain to roll over him. He opened his eyes warily when it didn't happen.

"What-"

"I wasn't really going to kill her you fool. Why would I kill a creature that could harness the time vortex? Not when I could use that to my advantage. I set it to stun a human. Not a Time Lord. It had no effect on you so stop worrying." The Doctor remained in front of the cage, unsure if he was bluffing.

"Then why-"

"To see how much she means to you. I mean, how much she really means to you. You didn't know that it wouldn't kill you." Unseen by the Master, Rose slipped her fingers through the bar to clutch at the Doctor's own. Even his fingers felt frail to her. It was not the strong grip that she was used to.

"What does it matter? I'd sacrifice myself for anyone in this room." The Master shook his head with a smirk.

"Not without thinking first. That was instinct. You love her don't you?" Rose's heart skipped a beat and the Doctor's hand tightened on her own.

"I love all of my companions. She's my best friend. And you haven't answered my question. What does it matter?" The Master grinned at him.

"Because if that's how much she means to you, then she's my biggest bargaining chip on this ship." There was a moment of silence, almost as if he was contemplating what to do with this new piece of information. He rolled the words around his mouth before calling out to the guards.

"Take her away. Put her in a cell, and I want guards around her at all times." Protests came streaming from the Doctor and Rose as the soldiers moved to open the cage. The Master easily restrained the aged Doctor, and felt a well of triumph at the hurt in his old rivals face as they watched Rose being dragged away by the guards. She struggled of course, but three soldiers easily took her strength and matched it with their own.

"Rose, it's alright. Just…I'll get you out. I promise." The Doctor called out as she stopped struggling and dutifully let them lead her away.

"Alright, I can walk by myself you know!" Wrenching her arms from the guard's grip, she walked amongst the guards. Before the doors closed behind them, she threw the Doctor a small hope filled smile.

"How sweet." The Master breathed into his ear, the glee evident in his voice.

"What do you want with her?" The Doctor demanded, tired of riddles.

"I don't know yet. But I think its going to be a lot of fun, don't you?" With that, he let the Doctor drop to the floor, landing with a painful thud.

"This is the first day of a beautifully eternity together, Doctor. And I will find Martha Jones and destroy her. I'll take this universe as my own, and you…well, we'll see what fun I have planned for you." He grabbed Lucy by the waist and sauntered out of the room, only pausing to call over his shoulder.

"The first day of the rest of your lives Doctor. Enjoy."

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**I have the next few chapters planned out, so it really depends if people are interested in reading it or not. So tell me what you thought! x**


	2. The Deal

**A/N: I'm terribly sorry it's taken so long for me to post this. But I had an operation (that was supposed to be standard procedure) and I suffered a few complications. So I only got out of the hospital two days ago. Everything's fine now though, and I should be back to posting as normal.**__

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Day 2

Rose sat in her new cell, hatred bubbling away underneath her calm facade. This cell was in worse condition than her old cage, which was an achievement by anyones standards. It was dingy and damp. And the smell...well, Rose didn't even want to think about that. The cell did have one redeeming feature however. There was one tiny window in the wall, looking out into the inky sky. If she stared out of it for long enough then she could imagine she was outside and not in this rat's hole. She had been sitting in the cell for over 24 hours, barely sleeping, and now the night had fallen. Yet she still couldn't rest.

However, the worse thing about her new predicament was that she was away from the Doctor. There was a constant fountain of thoughts in her mind regarding him. Was he safe? What was the Master doing to him? Was he even alive? Her thought process got more dramatic as it went on, thinking of new and horrible situations that he could be in as she sat there. it was far from pleasant.

Footsteps echoed down the corridor to her, and Rose leapt to the bars, hoping to find Tish or Francine coming to let her out. She recoiled however, when the Master came into view. He offered her a grin as she walked back to her bed and sat down on it, crossing her arms defiantly. Rose was quite aware that she looked like a moody teenager, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"Rose Tyler." He said, peering at her through the bars. The look he had on his face was uncomfortable to look at, and strangely reminiscent of the stare he had given her the day before. Like he was digesting her, sizing up her potential.

"What?" Rose practically spat to him, and he raised his eyebrows.

"Is that how you should be speaking to the man who holds your life in his hands?"

"You won't kill me, you said it yourself." She turned her head to look out of the small window.

"I can still hurt you." He said threateningly, and Rose scoffed. The Master took a step back from the bars, rage swirling through his irises.

"If you don't care for that then I could always take it out on the Doctor."

"What?" Her eyes grew wide as she regarded the smile working its way across his face.

"Bye bye, Rose." He waved at her and walked away down the corridor. Heart thudding in her chest, Rose ran back to the bars, rattling them at him to get his attention.

"Don't, please! You've done enough to him as it is!" She pleaded. To her relief, he stopped in his tracks.

"What are you offering?" He said quietly, and Rose looked to him in confusion.

"Offering? I'm not-"

"Tit for tat, Rose. If I don't hurt the Doctor, then you've got to do something for me in return." A dead weight settled in her stomach.

"What have...what have I gotta do?" She said carefully, dreading the answer. The master's face settled into a look of pure delight as he leaned in close to her, only the bars were stopping them from touching.

"I don't know yet. Ill give it a good, long, hard think." Rose looked at him with barely disguised contempt. He was so close to her that she could see the tiny flecks of gold within his brown eyes. With a swallow, she took a deep breath, and mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do.

"I'll make you a deal, Master." His eyebrows raised.

"A deal? And what would this deal entail exactly?" Rose kept her eyes focused on his through the bars, only a slight quaver to her voice betraying her nervousness.

"Let me out of here. Let me walk about, go where I please."

"For you to plot your escape? Somehow I don't think so." Closing her eyes to stop from rolling them, Rose gave him a sweet smile.

"Have guards follow me around all day if you want, I don't care. But I want to be able to walk around and see Jack, Tish, the Doctor, anyone I please." The Master's brow twitched as he thought, trying to find any loopholes or devious plots in her request.

"And what will you do for me?" Rose hesitated for a moment, the only thing immediately jumping to mind was offering to punch him in the face.

"Then I owe you one. A favour from me. And I'll do it. No matter what you ask, I'll do it." The Master started to grin.

"But I won't hurt anyone. That's the rule. I won't hurt anyone or kill anything. I refuse to do anything that will cause harm to anyone."

"I don't know how I feel about that rule."

"It's better than nothing." Rose said with a sigh. The Master couldn't help but agree, and they stood in silence for a minute while he contemplated it.

"Alright. You get free reign of my ship and you get to see your little friends whenever you want. But you will be followed by guards every step of the way." He said finally.

"Fine by me."

"Five guards. At all times. Even when you go to the bathroom." Rose frowned at his childish comment, but still nodded her agreement."Now here's the part I like." He grinned, and Rose felt her heart sink once again.

"I get a favour from you. Whatever I want and you will do it."

"Aside from-"

"Yes, aside from hurting people." He rolled his eyes at her, more than a little put out by the statememnt.

"And I'll call upon you for that favour when you least suspect it. And if you don't do it...then I kill the Doctor." Rose threw him the dirtiest look she could muster.

"Fine. But if you touch him the mean time-"

"I won't. I follow through with my agreements. I am a man of my word." The smile he gave her would have been charming if she knew that he wasn't a sadistic maniac.

"Deal." Rose said finally.

"Deal. Let her out! And I want five men with her at all times." The Master called down the corridor, and immediately five men came running. Rose stood and stared at the Master as the keys jangled in the lock. The favour he spoke about caused an untold amount of worry in the pit of her stomach.

But she had her own plan. With free reign of the ship she could communicate with every one of her friends. That way they could try to devise a plan of some kind. As she walked away from the Master and that incessant grin, ignoring the pounding of five pairs of boots behind her, she hoped it was before he called upon her to deliver her end of bargain.

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As soon as the doors to the main deck slid open, Rose trained her eyes onto the Doctor's tent. With a triumphant grin she saw the outline of his form lying within it through the thin fabric. The only people on the deck were soldiers and him. As she ran to it, she paused and turned to the guards.

"Sorry boys, but I don't see how all six of us are going to fit into that tent. Could you not just wait outside?" The guards shifted their guns from shoulder to shoulder, throwing nervous glances to each other.

"You'll be able to hear everything I'm saying so there's no chance of me plotting my cunning escape." She sighed as she rolled her eyes. It seemed to satisfy the 'leader' as he nodded gruffly. As they pulled up chairs for themselves, Rose made the rest of the way to the Doctor's tent.

"Doctor? It's Rose, can I...can I come in?" She paused awkwardly, not wanting to barge in unannounced.

"Rose?" She smiled as his voice called her name in surprise. Kneeling down awkwardly, she crawled in, frowning as she met nothing but the cold floor.

"Has he not given you any pillows or anything to sleep on?" She said, her face incredulous. The Doctor's aged face gave her a small smile.

"Why would he?" It took only a split second for Rose to throw her arms around his neck, clutching him to her almost as if he was about to disappear.

"Are you alright?" She mumbled into his shoulder."I'm fine, Rose." He said as quietly. He held her for a long while, and Rose knew better than to break the silence. She knew that he needed this. After a while she felt him freeze in her arms.

"Hang on, Rose. Why are you out of your cell? Did you escape-"

"No." Rose brought her thumb to her mouth, biting down hard on her nail, suddenly nervous.

"Then how?..." She grabbed his hands in hers, her thumbs stroking circles over his palms.

"Me and the Master, we...we made a deal."

"You did what?"

"Can I speak?" Rose fixed him with a pointed look, and much to the Doctor's chagrin, he remained silent.

"He's letting me roam about the ship as I please. I can go where I want as long as I have his guards with me. So I can see you and Jack whenever I want, I can stay with you-"

"What are you doing for him in return?" Rose averted the Doctor's eyes, not wanting to see the emotions in them.

"I owe him a favour. He can call upon me at any time to do something for him. And-"

"What have you done?" The Doctor said quietly. The sadness in his voice was evident, and Rose was quick to defend herself.

"He cant make me hurt anyone or anything, Doctor. That's a part of the agreement. And if I do it then he won't hurt you. He can't touch you." She reached out to touch his face and the Doctor caught it with a firm grip.

"Rose, who knows what he's going to ask of you? It could be anything, this is exactly what he wants! You're playing into his hands-"

"Well, if it means keeping you safe then I don't care." She said firmly. The Doctor gave her a long suffering sigh and placed his head in his hands."Doctor?" Rose tentatively called out when he didn't move for a minute or two.

"I'm sorry. I've trapped you here." All at once Rose was reminded of the moment on Krop Tor when she had realised the Doctor was just as helpless as she was. It scared her, knowing that he literally couldn't do anything to help the situation. But at the same time she knew that he was the one who needed comforting.

"It's alright, Doctor. We'll be alright, you and me." She waited until he looked up at her before speaking again."Now come on, I'm tired. And you look like you need to sleep." Rose reached for the Doctor's coat bundled up in the corner and awkwardly shuffled around as she laid it out on the cold floor. It wasn't ideal but it was the best she could do. She rested on top of it and smiled as the Doctor lay next to her. Curling into him, Rose grabbed his hand and thread their fingers together.

"Goodnight, Rose." The Doctor whispered, sadness tingeing the edges of his words, and Rose reached over to kiss his cheek softly. She lay her head on his chest and soothed herself with the thrum of his hearts.

"Goodnight, Doctor."

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**Tell me what you thought! xx**


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